tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47143273213690461612024-03-14T06:36:52.662-07:00Oklahoma United Methodist Historical SocietyOUMHS is committed to Preservation, Sharing and Research OUMHShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11860456952834747178noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714327321369046161.post-63104967783548979532015-08-17T14:49:00.000-07:002015-08-17T14:49:00.144-07:00The Women of Wesley (OKC): A Preliminary Research Report.<div style="text-align: justify;">
<em><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A preliminary report of research on </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Women’s groups and Presence in the Wesley United Methodist Church, 1910-2010.<o:p></o:p></span></span></em></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the infancy of the formation of the American nation, as leaders wrestled with weighty issues of declarations of independence and establishing a new government out of a collection of colonies, the life of one of the men sent a message to her husband to “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">remember the ladies</i>.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This future first lady, Dolly Madison, reminded her husband that in any laws the women should be represented or they faced a future rebellion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The same must be said of any one who attempts to write a history of a place or an institution. There is nowhere, perhaps, where this is truer than in looking at the history of a church.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Women organized in the Christian faith to assist a local congregation or to reach out to address a social or spiritual need no doubt can be traced to the New Testament.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The women who gathered early on Easter morning can be seen in such a light.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Local ministers such as Phoebe (Romans) saw to the needs of local and distant groups.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Widows formed themselves into ministry corps (such as seen in the story of Dorcas in Acts and the instructions about such an order in Timothy).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Methodism, the strong and proactive witness of Susannah Wesley set the stage for the development of an environment in the renewal movement that accepted that women could and should be active participants in the work of the gospel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Methodism, there was always the recognition that the Gospel work was not merely a spiritual task but also a physical one: for how could a person see a soul won to Christ but allow their body to starve or suffer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If something could be done, they asked themselves, should it not be done in the name of Christ?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Assorted and randomly placed works are sprinkled throughout early Methodist history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of these began to gain a great deal of identity and purpose with the Civil War.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The aided soldiers, their families, the doctors and so much more. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In 1869, the Women’s Foreign Missionary Society was formed in the Northern Methodist Episcopal and in the south in 1878. The work was officially recognized by the churches in 1890.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Ladies Aid Society emerged simultaneously out of several groups (Presbyterian, United Brethren, etc.) and were so alike it can be hard to identify one group from another; truly ecumenical!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Ladies Aid was first recognized in the 1903 Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;">One form or another of the Women’s Home Missionary Society (W.H.M.S.) had existed with a Women’s Foreign Missionary Society (W.F.M.S.) since the pre-Civil War era but in 1910, the W.H.M.S. and the W.F.M.S. theoretically merged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Theoretically because some churches, Wesley among them, continued to hold to the patterns previously established maintaining separate groups for decades.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In 1921, the Wesleyan Service Guild (W.S.G.) was created for women employed outside the home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1939, all groups united to form the new Woman’s Society of Christian Service (W.S.C.S.) but the W.S.G. remained separate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1969, under the new union of the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brethren Churches, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>all united to form themselves into common Woman’s Society of Christian Service (W.S.C.S.) until 1972, when they came under the new title and structure of the newly formed United Methodist Women (U.M.W.).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">First Women’s Groups<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Ladies Aid was first recognized in the 1903 Discipline of the M.E. Church and had continued to grow becoming a popular and active women’s group in communities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At Wesley, the first women’s organization was a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Ladies Aid Society </b>established in March of 1911 with Mrs. A.C. McCullough as the first president (1911-1913). The next month (April) saw the birth of the local <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Women’s Home Missionary Society </b>and that September the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Women’s Foreign Mission Society</b> at the home of Mrs. Pritchard on NW 29<sup><span style="font-size: xx-small;">th</span></sup> Street. In 1926 the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Wesleyan Service Guild</b> was established. Two Sunday School classes deserve special mention due to their goal of ministry to women at Wesley.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Ladies Bible Study</b> group donated one of the windows in the Sanctuary in 1928 and is thought to have formed shortly after the church formed but records are scarce. In about 1922, a class for young girls was formed and soon became the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Flesher Class for Young Girls</b> and remained active until its dissolution in 1932.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1929, a group unique and original to Wesley, “The <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Sorrelle Club</b>”, was established.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then in 1939, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">the Woman’s Society of Christian Service (WSCS)</b> and in 1972, the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">United Methodist Women</b> united all but the Sorelle Club under one umbrella.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong> </strong></span></o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>“History Wesley Women’s Organizations”</strong> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Women’s organizations have always been a telling force in the progress of Wesley.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In March of 1911 the ladies of Wesley Church met at the home of Mrs. H.B. Turner to organize a Ladies Aid Society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mrs. A.C. McCullough was elected president and Mrs. C.F. Crane elected secretary and treasurer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Their object was to promote the financial, social and spiritual welfare of the church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All the women of the church were invited to participate in the work of the Ladies Aid Society. Dues were $1.20 per year and service.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Those who served as president of the organization were as follows: Mrs. A.C. McCullough, Mrs. H.J. Eastman, Mrs. L. B. Goff, Mrs. R.A. Lyle, Mrs. A.H. Tyler, Mrs. H.H. Englebright, Mrs. R.L. Constant, Mrs. Nathan Boggs, Mrs. Frank Bell, Mrs. Olin Doty, Mrs. Joe Morgan, Mrs. E.B. Dodson, Mrs. R.B. Waite, Mrs. H.J. Ebeling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">On September 17, 1940 the Woman’s Society of Christian Service was formed by uniting the three societies: The Ladies Aid, The Home Missionary and the Foreign Missionary Societies.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Wesley Auxiliary of the Women’s Home Missionary Society</b> was organized in April 1911 in the home of Mrs. R.W. Spriggs with Mrs. J.F. Warren, Conference Corresponding Secretary, assisting in the organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mrs. R.W. Spriggs was elected president and Mrs. Olin Doty, secretary and treasurer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their motto was “For the Love of Christ and in His name.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The aim and purpose of the group “Help Win America for Christ.” By this organization they became part of the National organization which was made up of Conference, District and Local Societies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“The Agencies”: Home and Schools, hospitals training schools for Deaconesses, homes for Deaconesses, children’s homes, kindergarten, and day nurseries, settlement work in large cities, immigrant work at ports of entry, rest homes for retired missionaries, boarding homes for working girls and visiting nurses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The members of Wesley Auxiliary were always active and they were nearing the thirtieth birthday of the Auxiliary when the uniting of the three organizations, The Ladies Aid Society, The Woman’s Home Missionary Society and the Women’s Foreign Missionary Society became the Woman’s Society of Christian Service.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those who served as presidents from Wesley Auxiliary are named as follows:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mrs. W.W. Spriggs,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mrs. T.P. Taylor, Mrs. Clinton M. ALoen, Mrs. George Q. Fenn, Mrs. James Reneau, Mra. E. K. Ramsey, Mrs. Charles Johnson, Mrs. V.D. Wessel, Mrs. O.B. Morris, Mrs. R.E. Bradshaw, Mrs. D.R. McKown, and Mrs. Lloyd Boatright.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Snapshot of 1940<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In 1940, a church yearbook and directory listed the “<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Ladies Aid Society”</b> had an object “To promote the financial, social, and spiritual welfare of the church”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ladies were members of ten circles that met around the community on the third Tuesday of the month. Their calendar was from September to June and covered topics of loyalty (September), events such as the “70 and Over” Luncheon” (October), Thanksgiving and a Father-Son Banquet (November), Christmas (January) and Prayer and Lent taking up the first two months of the New Year. The Lent event would be an Organ Fund Concert. Easter (March) in April “The Women’s Work Old Fashioned Dinner”, while May saw a May Day Breakfast, Mother-Daughter Banquet and election of Officers. These were installed in a June program before the group took off the month of July.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Women’s Foreign Missionary Society”.</b> In 1869 the Women’s Foreign Missionary Society was formed in the Northern M.E. and in the south in 1878. The work was officially recognized by the churches in 1890.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It formed at Wesley in the spring of 1911, and the first president was Mrs. D.G. Murray (1912-1913). She was the wife of the District Superintendent, D.G. Murray.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She would later donate one of the stained glass windows in the new sanctuary in honor of her husband.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1940, at Wesley, the group motto was “Saved for Service”, their theme “One Heart, One Way”, their guiding hymn was “Brotherhood” (noted as 469 in the Hymnal). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their study text was “Woman and the Way” and their motto was “Study-Service-Sacrifice”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They met every second Tuesday of the month at 1-2 p.m.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The “<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Women’s Home Missionary Society”</b> motto was “For the Love of Christ and in His Name” and their aim was to “Help Win America for Christ.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The group had formed at Wesley in the spring of 1911 and the first president was Mrs. R.W. Sprigg (1911-1913). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They listed in 1940 that that their agencies included 940 Missionaries and Deaconesses serving in 180 institutions in 40 states, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. Their official magazines were “Woman’s Home Missions” and “Junior Neighbors”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The theme for the year was to be “With One Increasing Purpose” and their textbook was to be “Homeland Harvest” by Dr. Arthur Limouze and “Right Here at Home” by Frank Mead. The organization was organized into ten groups with Officers, Department Secretaries (Spiritual Life, Christian Citizenship, Thank Offering, Missionary Education, Mite Box, Lenten Offering), supplies, Chorister, Pianist, and Young People Work (College, High School, Intermediate Department, Junior Department, Primary Department, Mothers Jewels).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In 1940 were also listed the “<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Wesleyan Service Guild,</b>” whose motto was to “The World – To Serve”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Its goals were “Enrichment of spiritual life, Practice in World brotherhood, Development of Christian Citizenship, Guidance in the Highest Use of Leisure”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had several service projects including a home mission through the Leisenring Center, Dunbar, PA; through migrant work; and the Navajo Mission School, Farmington, NM.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Their textbook for 1940 was “Through Tragedy to Triumph” by Basil Mathews.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The group met the second Tuesday in member homes and had officers covering various projects (President, Recording secretary, correspondence secretary, treasurer, spiritual department chair, world service chair, social and recreational chair, mite box secretary)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The WSG had formed at Wesley in 1926 under the guidance of Maude Thomas Wolf and existed until the merger of women’s groups in 1973.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a 1964 church self-study report<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the group was <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>noted as still being active with some 26 members.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">At Wesley there was also the unique “<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Sorelle Club.”</b> It was organized in the church parlor in 1929 by Frances Wahl McAlister (Mrs. Wade), Mildred Robinett (Roscoe) and Sarah Paul Potts (Mrs. Ruhl).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Charter members were:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Deborah Heep Lower (Mrs. Paul), Iris Jenkins Miller (Mrs. Lewis), Hazel Ruedy Hornung (Mrs. Gerald ), Naomi Doty Matheney (Mrs. Jesse), Jessie Gowen Fuller (Mrs. Guy Edward), Thelma Varvel McCreight (Mrs. Warren), Mrs. Theresa Cranfield, Mrs. Cora Hayward, Thelma Carr (Mrs. Harold), Velda Marks (Mrs. karl), Betty Salmmon (Mrs. Herbert), Margaret Ireland (Mrs. “Brick”), Birdie Lasater (Mrs. Frenchie), Rilla Warner (Mrs. Judd), and Thelma Saxon Baker (Mrs. Marion).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It was organized by newlyweds and young mothers who wanted church activities and fellowship different than the Circles then offered at the church. The first presidents were: Frances McAlister. Mildred Robinett, Sarah Potts, and Thelma McCreight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The name was submitted by a committee of organizers and means “sister.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was reorganized in 1938 by Mrs. Hugh B. Fouke, wife of the pastor, into a spiritual, educational, and social club with meetings held in the parsonage parlor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In 1940, they reflected that new threefold purpose “spiritual, educational and social.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was noted they used the “panel method” for their discussions and programs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They met the third Thursday at 12:30 in the Wesley Church parlor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The officers included a Counselor (the pastor’s wife in 1940), chairman, program committee, hostess chairman, secretary and treasurer, telephone chairman<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Woman’s Society of Christian Service (WSCS)</b> was formed in 1939 as a result of the merger between the M.E., North, the M.E., South and the Methodist Protestant churches to form the Methodist Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first president at Wesley was Mrs. Joe Morgan (Ione) (1939-1940).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Other Groups<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Ladies Bible Study - No information<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Flesher Class for Young Girls.</b> In 1921 Wesley had a Sunday school class for college and business people sponsored by Mrs. W.E. Flesher. In the summer or fall of 1922, Mrs. Flesher became the teacher of a Sunday school class for 9<sup><span style="font-size: xx-small;">th</span></sup> or 10<sup><span style="font-size: xx-small;">th</span></sup> grade girls, ages 14 or 15 years. According to Helen Sellers the Flesher Class for Girls “really started the Sunday Mrs. Flesher took the class as a substitute teacher, it was then taught by Mary Lanham (Arbuthnot).”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sellers identified the following as charter members of the class: Elva Brown; Jean Alexander; Mildred Armor; Elizabeth Dailey; La Vaughn Reneau; Elizabeth Hoffman; Mary Emma Brown; Sarah Paul; Ramona Parrick; Thelma Todd; Thelma Keel; Mildred Jines.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Lydians - No information<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Malla Moe</b> was a group limited to single women who are members of the Two-In-One Class (Sunday School) and took its name from Miss Malla Moe of Norway, who a missionary to South Africa. In the early 1960’s, there were approximately 70 members, with an average attendance of 30 at the potluck luncheon on the first Tuesday of each month.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The group also held a lunch together every third Sunday after church. Special activities included projects for Crippled Children’s Hospital. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Nursing Home Auxiliary- No Information</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The United Methodist Women <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In 1973, United Methodist Women became the women’s mission organization of The United Methodist Church.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Women in Ministry and Leadership<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In 2007 Wesley had appointed the first female senior minister. Rev. Diana Cox Crawford served from 2007-2012.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She had previously pastored<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>across Oklahoma and served in various capacities in the conference as an elder. She was not, however, the first woman to serve in ministry roles at the church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Changing times, terms and denominational ministry classifications have meant that often these women were overlooked and their significant contributions - and history - unknown.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Women such as:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Miss Eureath White (1932-1933),</strong> found under "Pastoral Assistants" in the 1975 'History of a Dynamic Church' she is in a list which includes many recognized clergy and indicating the importance and value of the role in the life of the church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She may be the woman who later taught sociology at Southern Methodist Univ.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Nina B. McCosh - (1937-1945?).</strong> Born ca. 1893 in Kansas, Nina attended the "Kansas City Methodist Training Institute", now part of St. Paul's Seminary,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a special school for 'Deaconess and Missionaries' in the years before women were recognized by the Methodist denominations for ordination. Such schools allowed women to be specially trained to serve in specific pastoral and social justice arenas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These women organized missions, ministered to families, communities, and saw to the spiritual formation of people in the parish. The role answered the need for more qualified, trained, and committed people to serve as leaders within the church but did not grant those clergy role or status.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet, they did minister in real and powerful ways within congregations. A local news article illustrates the potential scope of her work at Wesley when it says that she was replacing the "assistant pastor" Rev. S. Lewis Stockwell (who was taking a church in Kansas).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was from Colorado Springs and had worked just previously in Guthrie for five years as a "helper" (Oklahoman, Sept.20, 1937:6).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In an undated list in the 1975 "History of a Dynamic Church" (pg.3) are included the names of some other female "Wesley Resident Ministers":<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Mrs. Mabel Crabtree</strong> - She is mentioned in a 1932 article about five city church leaders to serve on the faculty of the state Epworth League at Guthrie. From Wesley she joined other instructors from various other Methodist Churches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Epworth League was the youth organization of the Methodist Church.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Alice M. David</strong> - In her 1942 obituary she is noted to have been ordained in the 1929 in the M.E. Church. She led a long and active fight against drink being a local and state leader of the Women's Christian Temperance Union.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. She died at 82 on Jan.17, 1942 and her funeral was held at Wesley in Oklahoma City.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Joyce Webster</strong> - She was listed in the 1968 book, Oklahoma Methodism in the Twentieth Center" by Clegg and Oden as being a current clergy member of the conference who had entered it in 1927.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In an undated list in the same source are included some female "Local Preachers Whose Names are found on the Several Records of Wesley":<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Mrs. Mabel Crabtree</strong>- She is mentioned in a 1932 article about five city church leaders to serve on the faculty of the state Epworth League at Guthrie. From Wesley she joined other instructors from various other Methodist Churches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Epworth League was the youth organization of the Methodist Church.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Mrs. Alice M. David nee Harris</strong>- In her 1942 obituary she is noted to have been ordained in the 1929 in the M.E. Church. She led a long and active fight against drink being a local and state leader of the Women's Christian Temperance Union.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. She died at 82 on Jan.17, 1942 and her funeral was held at Wesley in Oklahoma City.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Neva Davidson</strong> - In 1934 she was pastoring at Capitol Hill and removed to Wichita Falls, Texas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Harriette Davis - No information found<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Nina B. McCash</strong> (should read <strong>McCosh</strong>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Joyce B. Webster</strong> - She was listed in the 1968 book, Oklahoma Methodism in the Twentieth Center" by Clegg and Oden as being a current clergy member of the conference who had entered in 1927.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Grace E. Garten</strong> - On August 2, 1988 a special retirement luncheon celebrated the life and legacy of Miss Grace E. Garten in the life of Wesley UMC in Oklahoma City. It was held in the Scarab Room at Oklahoma City University. Fittingly, the cover of the program read "Amazing Grace!" and included the lines of that well known hymn. (see list of participants in the program below). </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Grace was born, according to a biography she typed for her retirement celebration, "<i>on a farm near Piedmont, Okla. and moved to a farm east of Hennessey when I was five years old. I had an older brother and sister who were twins (Alma and Albert). I always said that I was a middle dot in the "five spot", as in dominoes/ With a pair older than me and a pair younger, I was more or less alone.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i>Growing up on a farm, I learned to do what other farm girls did: milk cows, wash the separator, feed calves and pigs, dress chickens, cook for harvest men and threshers, churn butter, etc.. I</i></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i> heard the Bible read every morning - also had Family Prayer together each day. I must have heard the Bible read through several times before I left for college.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An old-fashioned one-room rural school called <b>College Corner</b> was where I received my education in grades 1-8. </i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em></em><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i>I attended a <b>Christian Union</b> country church near my home from early childhood through high school - was active in all youth activities - was given a license to preach while a teenager - also participated in the program of the County Sunday School Conventions which included all Protestant denominations. </i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><em></em></o:p></span> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i>I worked my way through high school and college graduating from Oklahoma City University (OCU) with a major in Religious Education and Philosophy, also a major in Education.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Following graduation, I became a teacher in the Oklahoma City School System. I became a Methodist in 1933 when I joined <b>First Methodist Church</b> here in Oklahoma City. </i></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i>In 1939, I studied at <b>Union Theological Seminary</b> in New York City. The remainder of my seminary training was at <b>Garrett</b>, a Methodist College on the campus of Northwestern University at Evanston, Ill.</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><em></em></o:p></span> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i>My first position as Director of Christian Education in a local church was in Dallas, Texas at <b>Tyler Street Methodist Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b>I joined the <b>Wesley</b> Methodist Church staff as Director of Christian Education Sept. 1, 1944 when Dr. Nuell C. Crain was pastor.</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i>1963-1967: was Director at <b>Travis Park Methodist Church</b>, San Antonio</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i>1967-1970: was Director at <b>Crown Heights Methodist Church</b>, Oklahoma City</i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i>In July of 1970, when Dr. Blanton was senior pastor, I accepted the invitation to return to Wesley as Christian Education Director - the last 13 years I have served as Parish Visitor.”</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><em><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></em><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In addition to this information she also had certifications for specialized Christian education and church work:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /> 1955 (?) -- Certified Director of Christian Education<br /> 1974 -- Consecrated Lay Worker<br /><b>1977 --Diaconal Minister"</b><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;">On September 1, 1944, Wesley's program had grown so much that a new employee was decided on to head the growing groups in the church. Grace E. Garten, a public school teacher, was hired as the first full-time Director of Education. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In 1941, an article in the Oklahoman, "Parents Criticized for Books Children Read" (Nov.3,1941;5) she was reported as having spoken to a group on behalf of the Oklahoma Council of Churches as it Religious Education Director.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She urged parents to "have good books available in the home." </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Church records note she re-established the 'Junior Church' in 1944 and when the Baker Chapel was built in 1954 this group met in that area. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In 1948 (that year she is listed in a city directory and gives Wesley as her place of employment). </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In 1952, there is an article in the Ada Weekly News (Ada, OK) that Miss Garten would be conducting lectures there on Christian Education at the First Methodist Church of Ada. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">She would remain at Wesley for many decades and in near retirement years became the official Parish Visitor. She finally retired fully in 1988. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">She was well respected, at Wesley and around the state, as an Education Director.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She conducted numerous workshops for churches addresses issues and methods to improve their programs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was long affiliated with the Council of Churches education program.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In 1940 she penned a lovely poem, later used in a church devotional booklet:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">"What God does not do as God<o:p></o:p></i></span><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">He does do as man.<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">For it was through Jesus<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That came the redemptive plan.<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So God reaches out to the world through me.<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not alone through my Godlikeness<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But through my humanity.<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For there is a call in the human touch<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That lost man understands.<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And when the world is brought close to God<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>'Twill be through human hands."<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<br /><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; tab-stops: 140.25pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Grace E. Garten, 1940. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Into the late 1980's she conducted programs for senior centers and other locations bringing along her large collection of crosses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She died in 1990 in Oklahoma City.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; tab-stops: 140.25pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">---Compiled by Marilyn A. Hudson<o:p></o:p></span></div>
OUMHShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11860456952834747178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714327321369046161.post-15093703351506482912015-07-24T08:46:00.001-07:002015-07-24T08:55:15.639-07:00Asbury Manual Training School and Mission, North Fork Town, IT by Linda Morgan Clark<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Asbury Manual Training School and
Mission, North Fork Town, IT<o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span>In 1821, Bishop
William McKendree (Methodism’s Senior Bishop at the time) appointed 30 year old
Rev. William Capers of <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">South Carolina</st1:place></st1:state>,
to serve as Superintendent of Missions to the Creek Indians whose lands
included parts of western <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Georgia</st1:place></st1:country-region>
and eastern <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Alabama</st1:place></st1:state>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Capers was sent to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Fort Mitchell</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Alabama</st1:state></st1:place>,
a fort built during the Creek War in 1813 by the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Georgia</st1:place></st1:country-region> militia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fort was originally located on a horse
trail through Creek lands that allowed whites to travel from <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Georgia</st1:place></st1:country-region> to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New Orleans</st1:place></st1:city>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the time Capers was sent as “missionary in
<st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">South Carolina</st1:place></st1:state>
and to the Indians” the trail had become a postal road known as the <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Federal Road</st1:address></st1:street> and
the fort a trading post for the southeast region.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here at this important crossroads Rev. Capers
was to fulfill his mandate to carry out “the benevolent purpose of teaching [the
Indians] the ordinary arts of civilized life and their children the common
rudiments of education.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was hoped
that the Federal Government would fulfill its promise of providing $10,000 if
the school taught “<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">reading,
writing, and arithmetic [to] all students. Boys would also be taught knowledge
of the modes of agriculture while girls would also be taught spinning, weaving,
and sewing.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>After
successful negotiations with the chiefs of the Creek Nation, in 1822 Rev.
Capers opened the Asbury Manual Labor School and Mission one mile north of Fort
Mitchell near the Indian village of Coweta (one mile west of the Chattahoochee
River and nine miles south of Columbus, Georgia) to teach Creek children
reading, writing, and other “civilized” skills.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When it opened there were twelve pupils under the direction of Rev.
Isaac Smith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Soon
there were three teachers, several buildings, and a farm of about 25 acres. Rev.
Capers served the school and mission until 1824, to be followed by a succession
of missionaries. It is believed the school was the first formal educational
effort of any kind in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Chattahoochee</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">River</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Valley</st1:placetype></st1:place>.
Throughout its history, the school had, on average, 35 to 50 boarding students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Today,
the location of this school is recognized as a United Methodist Heritage
Landmark.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An historical marker has been
erected near the site and is listed as a destination point in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">A
Traveler’s Guide to the Heritage Landmarks of the United Methodist Church </span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">(at <a href="http://www.gcah.org/research/travelers-guide"><span style="color: blue;">www.gcah.org/research/travelers-guide</span></a>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It
is to this school and this first missionary to the Creeks that we can give
credit for the seeds of Christianity in general and Methodism in particular being
placed in the heart of one of its young pupils, i.e., Samuel Checote, who was
sent by his parents in 1828, at the age of nine, to board at the school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Two
years later, on <st1:date day="3" month="2" w:st="on" year="1830">February 3,
1830</st1:date>, the South Carolina Conference formally discontinued the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Asbury</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Manual</st1:placename>
<st1:placename w:st="on">Labor</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">School</st1:placetype></st1:place>
and <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Mission</st1:place></st1:city>.
Five years previous to the closing, on <st1:date day="12" month="2" w:st="on" year="1825"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">February 12, 1825</span></st1:date><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">, (and only three years after the school
was established) the National Council of the Great Creek Nation had signed a
Removal Treaty by which it relinquished all <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Alabama</st1:place></st1:state> and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Georgia</st1:place></st1:country-region> lands in exchange for lands
in <st1:place w:st="on">Indian Territory</st1:place>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Adding to this atrocity were
</span>the deplorable conditions of the Indians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Contact with white intruders exacerbated the
pervasive use of alcohol among Indians and their destitute condition led to the
theft of the cattle, poultry, and corn that belonged to the School and <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Mission</st1:place></st1:city>. The combination
of losing their native homelands and the appalling conditions in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Alabama</st1:place></st1:state> dealt a
devastating blow to the Creeks and contributed to their increasing indifference
to white man’s religion. Other barriers had produced mixed results and little
immediate success in converting Creeks to Christianity, i.e., a ban on
preaching, the entanglement of the missionaries in the politics of Removal, and
their cultural biases, to name but a few. As the Methodists turned their
attention to the masses of white people that flooded into the new <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Georgia</st1:place></st1:country-region>
counties on the east side of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Chattahoochee</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">River</st1:placetype></st1:place>, the fate of <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Alabama</st1:place></st1:state>’s Asbury mission
with the Creeks was sealed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">So in 1829 before the Asbury school and mission
in Alabama faded into obsolescence and closed, ten year old Checote and his
parents moved from their home near Ft. Mitchell to Indian Territory and settled
just west of Okmulgee, IT. </span><span lang="EN"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In 1847, three years after the General
Conference meeting in New York City that created the Indian Mission Conference
(<st1:stockticker w:st="on">IMC</st1:stockticker>), the third Annual Conference
of the <st1:stockticker w:st="on">IMC</st1:stockticker> met in November 1847,
in Doaksville, IT, and made plans for re-establishing Asbury Manual Labor
School and Mission in the Creek Nation, IT.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Rev. William Capers, now a Bishop, and the one who had organized the
school with the same name in Alabama which Checote had attended, appointed the
Rev. Thomas B. Ruble, missionary among the Pottawattomies, to select a site and
supervise the construction of the new school buildings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ruble secured the help of Colonel Logan, the
U.S. Indian Agent for the Creek Nation, and Colonel Rutherford, superintendent
of the Western Territory.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>site was chosen the following year for the school on an 80-acre
farm at North Fork Town, on the Texas Road where the Creek Trail of Tears ended
and 10 Miles northeast of what is now Eufaula, Oklahoma.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>About 30 acres was fenced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Included on the property was a stable,
chicken house, a few fruit trees and a 20 square foot house with porch and
kitchen,.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From the $1,000 alloted by the
Board of Mission, Ruble purchased the site and improvements from a widow for
$300 (about $10,000.00 in today’s money).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The cornerstone was laid July 19,
1848, for what is believed to be the largest mission school built in Indian
Territory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first classes, however,
were held in the log house starting in August, with the Reverend W. S. Cobb as
teacher.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The classes continued in the
log house until the new buildings were ready to use in 1850. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A stone and brick building 110 feet long, 34
feet wide and three stories high was built with materials shipped by boat from
Louisville, via the Arkansas River, then overland to the site by ox-drawn
wagons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The design of this building proved
to be a model for a few mission schools built in later years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The bottom floor housed the staff and
missionaries, the second floor was reserved for classrooms, and the top floor
was divided into girls’ and boys’ dormitories.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The U.S. Government paid $5,000 ($150,000.00)
to build the school from the funds promised to the Creeks under a treaty in
1845 whereby they were to be compensated for their native lands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The balance of the total cost of $9,169 ($284,000.00)
was paid by the Board of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Missions of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
building contained 21 rooms, large halls, and would accommodate 100 students
along with the faculty. In 1848, before the school was even complete, the
annual report to the <st1:stockticker w:st="on">IMC</st1:stockticker> records
that there were 30 Creek boarding students, one local preacher, 24 white
teachers and staff and a small balance of $6.75 on hand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The school continued to be financially
sustained from the Creek’s annuity, making it an official “Indian Mission
School”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Creeks supplied textbooks
and financial support for the students.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span>Early schooling experiences
were checkered with frustrations of erratic attendance, unsupportive parents,
and inexperienced teachers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes it
was a <span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">struggle to keep students <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and</i> missionaries on task.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1851 the Superintendent informed the
commissioner of Indian affairs, that half the students had the measles and the
Baptists had opened a school in the area, both of which were robbing the Asbury
School of its pupils.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then on top of
that a great wind storm caused a great deal of damage to the large school
building alarming students, their parents, and the staff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The missionary then chose to abandon his post
and take his family to safety.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><span style="color: black;">Yearly reports to the <st1:stockticker w:st="on">IMC</st1:stockticker>
Annual Conference as well as the U.S. Government reflect the details of
managing the endeavor up to the outbreak of the Civil War.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Rev. Thomas Bertholf, Superintendent at the beginning of the war, took his
wife and went south to the mouth of Washita River (near present day Kingston)
until the hostilities ended, but still remained Superintendent of the Asbury
school.</span><span style="color: black;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The Civil War and
Reconstruction was devastating to the Indian tribes in IT.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Inter-tribal rivalries continued to fester.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Marauding soldiers from both sides of the
conflict overran Indian lands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cattle
were driven off, buildings were burned, many Indian settlements were destroyed,
the people scattered, and mission work disrupted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Indian Mission Conference (<st1:stockticker w:st="on">IMC</st1:stockticker>) struggled to take up its work again. At the
Asbury School, the smaller buildings had been burned and the large building was
severely damaged and in disrepair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rev.
Bertholf returned in 1866 from his place of refuge and was given the task of
rebuilding and reopened the Mission and School.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Samuel Checote, now a Methodist minister in the <st1:stockticker w:st="on">IMC</st1:stockticker>,
helped Bertholf secure an appropriation of $6,000 (almost $100,000 in 2015
dollars) from the U.S. government for the task.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However, Reb. Bertholf did not live long enough to accomplish his
assignment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He died </span><strong><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">June 18, 1867, and </span></strong><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">was buried on the school grounds.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Rev. John Harrell,
Checote’s mentor, was then appointed superintendent of the Mission to serve for
the remainder of the Conference year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Next,
Rev. Thomas B. Ruble, who was assigned in1848 to complete the project. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the restoration work had barely begun,
when the very next year the main building of the school was destroyed by
fire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rev. Harrell then returned to the
school as Superintendent, to complete the Conference year, and using his
considerable influence with the Creeks and government officials, had new
buildings built once again and the school reopened in 1870.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The Indian Mission Annual
Conference was held at the school in 1874.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Rev. Harrell, appointed again as Superintendent in 1876, like Rev.
Bertholf, died while serving the mission.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>While preaching in Vinita, he collapsed in the pulpit, Dec. 8, 1876.</span><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i></strong><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Five years later, in 1881, the School burned again
and burned again for the final time in 1887, never to reopen (reportedly boys
burned down the school in both instances). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some students were sent home, and the
missionaries and remaining students went to live in the nearby home of Judge
Stidham until the end of the term.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
was the end of the Asbury Manual Labor School and Mission in old North Fork
Town, IT (now an Oklahoma ghost town).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Neither
the church nor the Creeks could agree to having it rebuilt since jointly
financing Mission Schools by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and the
Indian tribes was drawing to a close.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This account certainly
reflects the concerted effort on the part of the government, church, and Creeks
to keep this school in operation for as long as possible. Not only was it vital
to the work of Methodism among the Creeks but it also played a significant role
in the education of many, many Creek children who went on to be leaders,
educators, and outstanding citizens in their tribe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One such individual was Creek Chief, Peter R.
Ewing, an outstanding Baptist minister, educator, and Bacone College alumus who
ran away from home when he was 10 years old so he could attend the Asbury
School. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It is told that Peter
Ewing, born Peter </span>Chuffee, whose last name translated from Creek into
English is “<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Rabbit”, was teased
mercilessly by the children at the school by calling him “Peter Rabbit”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was discouraged to the point of quitting
school, when Rev. Young Ewing, the last Superintendent to preside over the
school, took special notice of Peter and the teasing he was enduring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He took Peter under his wing and told him he
could be his boy and he’d give him his last name.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So ever after that Peter Chuffee/Rabbit was
Peter R. Ewing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>After the school burned
for the final time, the Creeks were without a school for a few years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So in 1892, the Creeks built their own school
to fill the void left by the abandoned Asbury School.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This school eventually became Eufaula’s High
School.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today Creeks operate their own
boarding school called Eufaula Dormitory, located on the outskirts of Eufaula, which
they view as the Asbury School’s logical successor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Asbury School and Mission
holds a special significance as well for Muskogee Methodism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The very existence of the school and its high
regard in Indian Territory is the reason Rev. Theodore Frelinghuysen Brewer was
sent in August 1878 by the Arkansas Conference to be a teacher and eventually
principal of the school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="color: black;">In the scant notes of his life left in his own
handwriting, he says that he was appointed principally to do educational work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, i</span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">n October of that year, at the third Annual
Conference of the Indian Mission Conference, held in Muscogee, IT, he also
became the founding pastor of the “<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Rock</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Church</st1:placetype></st1:place>” in the little <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">village</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Muscogee</st1:placename></st1:place> that had sprung up around the
MK&T/KATY railroad station. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But the Asbury school also
has a relationship to the town of Eufaula and the First United Methodist Church
of Eufaula, that deserves notice (Rev. Brewer established the Eufaula church in
1879, the year following the beginning of the “Rock Church” in Muscogee.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When the present day Lake
Eufaula was being built, the Eufaula church decided to take charge of the
reinterment of several of the school’s workers who were buried in its burial
ground located about ½ mile west of the School site near the old Jefferson
Highway. Two Superintendents of the School, Rev. Thomas Bertholf, and Rev. John
Harrell, were buried on those school grounds (as were their wives, some of
their children, and others who died while working there).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Beginning in 1961, First
Methodist Church in Eufaula worked with the Corps of Engineers and Eufaula’s
City Council to relocate the graves of the missionaries to an addition to Eufaula’s
Greenwood Cemetery before the old school site and cemetery disappeared under
the waters of the new lake. A block of cemetery lots was purchased by a group
of Eufaula citizens and donated to a committee from the church working on the
relocation. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Had the church not
prevailed, the Corps would have relocated their graves along with hundreds more
from other cemeteries effected by the proposed impoundment area of the lake, to
a location the Corps carved out on the western shore of the lake adjacent to an
old burial ground near the ghost town of Fishertown.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Approximately 20 or so graves of infants,
children, and young women from the Asbury Cemetery however <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">were</i> moved to the Fishertown location by the Corps.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Thus only eleven
individuals from the Asbury Cemetery were reinterred in the new addition to
Eufaula’s Greenwood Cemetery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
location of these graves was then marked by a memorial stone structure from the
original hand-hewn stones of the school the Eufaula Methodists were able to
save before the clearing of the land for the lake (the Eufaula newspaper
reported in 1941 that the commissary building was still standing).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It took about three years and countless hours
of volunteer labor; the cooperation of the Corps of Engineers, citizens of
Eufaula, its City Council, the official board of the church; and thousands of
dollars in donations to complete the project.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is said that the memorial cost more than twice the $10,000 original
cost of the School in 1848.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The stone
monument was designed by the church’s pastor, Rev. Cecil L. Bolding, and marked
with aluminum lettering and a bronze tablet furnished by the Oklahoma Methodist
Historical Society. It was dedicated May 30, 1964, only months after the dam
was ready for the lake to fill to its capacity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>At the Oklahoma Annual Conference in June that same year, the Asbury
Memorial was designated a Methodist shrine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As far as it is known this is the first place of Methodist historical
importance so designated (its predecessor of the same name in Ft. Mitchell,
Alabama, was not designated as a shrine until after 1984).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The following graves and
headstones/monuments were moved to Greenwood Cemetery:<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: currentColor; margin: auto auto auto 1.5in; mso-border-insideh: none; mso-border-insidev: none; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 480;">
<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<strong><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p> </o:p></span></strong></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Born:</span></u></i><strong><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Died:</span></u></i><strong><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Bertholf, Marcus</span></i></strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<st1:date day="12" month="2" w:st="on" year="1814"><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">12 Feb 1814</span></i></strong></st1:date><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<st1:date day="1" month="3" w:st="on" year="1869"><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">1 Mar 1869</span></i></strong></st1:date><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 2;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Bertholf, Thomas, Rev.*</span></i></strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<st1:date day="12" month="7" w:st="on" year="1810"><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">12 Jul 1810</span></i></strong></st1:date><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<st1:date day="28" month="6" w:st="on" year="1867"><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">28 Jun 1867</span></i></strong></st1:date><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 3;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Harrell, Elisa<o:p></o:p></span></i></strong></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<st1:date day="16" month="10" w:st="on" year="1816"><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">16 Oct 1816</span></i></strong></st1:date><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></strong></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<st1:date day="20" month="11" w:st="on" year="1876"><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">20 Nov 1876</span></i></strong></st1:date><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></strong></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 4;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Harrell, John<o:p></o:p></span></i></strong></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<st1:date day="22" month="10" w:st="on" year="1806"><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">22 Oct 1806</span></i></strong></st1:date><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></strong></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<st1:date day="8" month="12" w:st="on" year="1876"><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">8 Dec 1876</span></i></strong></st1:date><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></strong></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 5;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Lindsey, Edward Allen<o:p></o:p></span></i></strong></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">----<o:p></o:p></span></i></strong></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<st1:date day="27" month="8" w:st="on" year="1882"><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">27 Aug 1882</span></i></strong></st1:date><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></strong></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 6;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Pifer, Caroline<o:p></o:p></span></i></strong></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<st1:date day="9" month="12" w:st="on" year="1870"><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">9 Dec 1870</span></i></strong></st1:date><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></strong></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<st1:date day="17" month="7" w:st="on" year="1882"><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">17 Jul 1882</span></i></strong></st1:date><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></strong></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 7;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Pifer, Eufaula<o:p></o:p></span></i></strong></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<st1:date day="28" month="2" w:st="on" year="1880"><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">28 Feb 1880</span></i></strong></st1:date><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></strong></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<st1:date day="6" month="2" w:st="on" year="1883"><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">6 Feb 1883</span></i></strong></st1:date><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></strong></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 8;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Ruble, James M<o:p></o:p></span></i></strong></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<st1:date day="9" month="10" w:st="on" year="1839"><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">9 Oct 1839</span></i></strong></st1:date><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></strong></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">11 May 1859<o:p></o:p></span></i></strong></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 9;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Scott, Altha<o:p></o:p></span></i></strong></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<st1:date day="4" month="4" w:st="on" year="1877"><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">4 Apr 1877</span></i></strong></st1:date><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></strong></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">24 May 1878<o:p></o:p></span></i></strong></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 10;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Waggoner, Payfont L<o:p></o:p></span></i></strong></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">16 May 1856<o:p></o:p></span></i></strong></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<st1:date day="30" month="12" w:st="on" year="1882"><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">30 Dec 1882</span></i></strong></st1:date><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></strong></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 11; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Wilkey, M. J.<o:p></o:p></span></i></strong></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<st1:date day="5" month="11" w:st="on" year="1866"><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">5 Nov 1866</span></i></strong></st1:date><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></strong></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<st1:date day="6" month="2" w:st="on" year="1882"><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">6 Feb 1882</span></i></strong></st1:date><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></strong></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; text-align: justify;">
<strong><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> <span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span> </span></strong><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">*Rev. Bertholf’s wife’s burial place is
uncertain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She may have been in an
unmarked grave and lies instead under Lake Eufaula.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her </span>cenotaph is on her nephew’s
monument (Charlie H. Bertholf), in the Combs, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">McCurtain</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">County</st1:placetype></st1:place>,
Cemetery.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Countless
articles in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Indian Journal</i>
(Eufaula’s newspaper) reference the old school, even going so far as to credit
the Methodists and their <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Mission</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">School</st1:placetype></st1:place> with the very
existence of Eufaula.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, after the
lake was impounded and the property was no longer visible, the role of this
school and its history seems to have faded.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It would appear that those reinterred in the Fishertown location have
been forgotten as well, for now it is overgrown and nearly abandoned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">A feature
article in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Muskogee Phoenix</i>, </span><span class="updated">July 3, 2015,</span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> <span lang="EN">reported on its current neglected condition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Obviously the Corps made a major blunder in
relocating the cemeteries effected by the building of the lake to a place they
carved out adjacent to the burial ground of a small village that vanished even
before Oklahoma statehood.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">* * * * * * *<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">North Fork Town:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v029/v029p079.pdf"><span style="color: blue;">http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v029/v029p079.pdf</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Information on Fishertown:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v031/v031p247.pdf"><span style="color: blue;">http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v031/v031p247.pdf</span></a></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg9DCmXPeBLGfThPkMGwuzPts9iXfVNjQniUwhmOi3XecN-pQsw87FgOtuQJzWl3YlXlh-6ulAh9eL-Ny5bwVCNdO8YyvcR0rkeDtDGXMXWMx4OWgWP58QmwywbLcYZARi7KwDb9W8cyU/s1600/1532013_10201904775915816_1762591712_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg9DCmXPeBLGfThPkMGwuzPts9iXfVNjQniUwhmOi3XecN-pQsw87FgOtuQJzWl3YlXlh-6ulAh9eL-Ny5bwVCNdO8YyvcR0rkeDtDGXMXWMx4OWgWP58QmwywbLcYZARi7KwDb9W8cyU/s1600/1532013_10201904775915816_1762591712_n.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Linda Morgan Clark</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"></span><br />OUMHShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11860456952834747178noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714327321369046161.post-44074306974023562572015-07-21T13:08:00.002-07:002015-07-21T13:08:45.811-07:00A Ministry of Memory<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_LI1wcz3uJo/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_LI1wcz3uJo?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<br />OUMHShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11860456952834747178noreply@blogger.com0